THE RUSSIAN INVASION OF CAUCASIA AND THE CIRCASSIANS WHO SETTLED AROUND KOSOVO DISTRICT

Abstract

The Russian invasion in the Caucasus had forced many of the nations in the region to migration. Nevertheless, we tried to shed light to Caucasus migration, perhaps one of the most brutal forced migrations in history, in terms of Kosovo or in a larger sense Balkans. Russians, again, wanted Circassian to be exiled from the region using some international documents, so that they did not have to deal with these mountain warriors in the Balkans once more. However, the state of the Circassians in the region together with the difficulties they were facing and the furore they demonstrated against the residences of the region triggered another migration. After the defeat of Ottoman-Russian war of 1877-78 and signing of the Treaty of Berlin, the Ottoman Empire finally accepted the Russian demands and started to move Circassians to other regions. This research aims to bring another point of view to the forced migration of the Caucasus nations, by exploring the lives of Circassian immigrants who were settled in to the Kosovo region and explaining the problems they created in terms of public order.